Perputal horse before the cart

A few weeks ago, I asked a question on the entrepreneur-themed site, FoundersDating.com. It’s a great resource to share ideas and find other like-minded entrepreneurs and possible co-founders. Within the site, users can seek answers and input from other members.

I’m in the process of trying to scale my popular event, Bloggers Meet Startups, into other cities. While I have an idea of what I would need to do in order to find potential city organizers, I thought it might be a good idea to ask for free advice on Founders Dating.

To my surprise, there was some really great feedback. One comment by Jeff really struck me. Honestly, I didn’t even really understand his entire message – or download is whitepapers – but one snippet did resonate.

“Sounds like you want to put the cart in front of the horse.

Yes Jeff. You’re correct. The cart is clearly in front of the horse in this scenario. Although I see it as intentionally working towards the next level. Waiting for others to surprise ask me to become a city organizer by osmosis is a risky proposition. It simply may never happen if the seed is never planted.

With a bit of hard work and persuasion, users and collaborators will hopefully come to a conclusion faster. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I think it’s important to try.

Therefore, the idea of putting the cart before the horse is probably the fundamental aspect of starting any type of growth. If you don’t intentionally and actively seek users/collaborators/investors then you’re not maybe hitting the phonebook hard enough.

The story of the famed self-made millionaire and entrepreneur Mark Cuban comes to mind. (Someone who I admire very much) If there’s anything that I’ve picked up from listening to Cuban while watching Shark Tank and reading his books and blog is you need to have a clear vision and hit the ground in order to make your idea successful. (My interpretation)

So… The answer to are you putting the cart before the horse…. it’s not about the horse.

It’s about trying to decide on the correct cart to push at the right time and whether it’s maybe worth to do it without a horse.